Juan Gaertner/Shutterstock The first-line pharmacological treatment for major depressive disorder (MDD) are antidepressant drugs known as selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs). But a significant proportion of people don’t respond to these drugs. Given that major depression is a global mental health problem that is on the increase, it is importantContinue Reading
Earth and Moon as seen by the Galileo spacecraft from a distance of 6 million km away. NASA It’s been 30 years since a group of scientists led by Carl Sagan found evidence for life on Earth using data from instruments on board the Nasa Galileo robotic spacecraft. Yes, youContinue Reading
The Orionids meteor shower takes place between October and November. Brian Spencer / Shutterstock Throughout the year, there are different meteor showers that all have different properties and can be more or less easy to spot. During October, it’s time for the Orionids, one of the best known meteor showersContinue Reading
Ekateryna Zubal/Shutterstock If you’ve ever used a dating app, you’ve probably experienced the disappointment of meeting someone who doesn’t look quite like their photos. You may have even been a victim of catfishing, where someone creates a fake identity to deceive or scam others online. But what if someone usesContinue Reading
How much can the written records of ancient civilisations tell us about the animals they lived alongside? Our latest research, based on the venomous snakes described in an ancient Egyptian papyrus, suggests more than you might think. A much more diverse range of snakes than we’d imagined lived in theContinue Reading
The "coal-like" material from Bennu. Nasa / Erika Blumenfeld & Joseph Aebers On September 24 this year, a Nasa capsule parachuted down to Earth carrying a precious cache of material grabbed from an asteroid. The space agency has now revealed images and a preliminary analysis of the space rocks itContinue Reading
Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock There are estimated to be nearly 8 million species of animals living today, making up the majority of Earth’s documented biodiversity and inhabiting almost all of its environments. However, for most of Earth’s history animals were completely absent. The date of the first animals marks a shift in theContinue Reading
A player in Fortnite visiting the Holocaust museum and learning about the Jews of Tunisia. Luc Bernard If you’ve played Fortnite, you’ll probably know it as a battle royale game in which you fight it out with around 100 other players until there is only one left standing. And youContinue Reading
Hiring algorithms could filter candidates before interviews even take place. fizkes / Shutterstock There are risks and harms that come with relying on algorithms to make decisions. People are already feeling the impact of doing so. Whether reinforcing racial biases or spreading misinformation, many technologies that are labelled as artificialContinue Reading
Dan Negureanu/Shutterstock Centenarians, once considered rare, have become commonplace. Indeed, they are the fastest-growing demographic group of the world’s population, with numbers roughly doubling every ten years since the 1970s. How long humans can live, and what determines a long and healthy life, have been of interest for as longContinue Reading
